O Noes! There’s a Welsh company that sells .22 rifles that *look* like an AR-15! Panic!
“Frightening.” Hmm. This… is a freakin’ .22. A round used for taking down *rodents.* A weaker round is unlikely to be found.
And hey… isn’t the scope on backwards?
I understand the Sun is a muck-raking sensationalist tabloid of low character, kinda like the National Enquirer, the Weekly World News or the New York Times. But still, come on… freaking out over a .22?
Oh, California, how I don’t miss you so.
A little while ago, some California citizens subjects decided to go out and about openly carrying firearms. Keep in mind: this was legal. Plus, they were not *brandishing* their weapons; they were not knocking over gas stations; they were being in no way threatening; they were just going about their day openly armed (kinda… they didn’t actually have any bullets in the guns, which makes ’em little more than really expensive clubs).
So, what did the California state legislature do? They made it illegal to openly carry long guns.
This is perhaps a good test of whether or not you live in a free society: if you are allowed to do something only so long as you don’t actually do it… you’re not in a free society. But hey, as sort of a compromise the state legislature also raised taxes and has decided that illegal aliens should get taxpayer-funded in-state tuition breaks. Pretty great, right?
Times like this, I’m glad there’s a bloody great deadly desert (called “Nevada”) between California and Utah.
… to not knuckle under to the gun grabbers:
Where we can read some real whoppers:
1) I have fired guns only once in my life… our group were let loose on everything from Magnum 45 handguns
.45 Magnum? Hmm.
2) After the shootings at a cinema in Aurora, Colorado, in July – where 70 people were hit, the worst victim-count in such an incident in US history, and 12 people died – sales of guns in the state rose by a staggering 41 per cent in the following month as people bought into the theory that if everyone in the theatre had been armed too, they’d have stopped the shooter.
Not much info on this as yet. An early 1958 General Electric study to provide the Snark intercontinental cruise missile with a nuclear turbojet to give the craft 200 hours of Mach 0.9 performance at 30,000 feet. As the Snark had only a single warhead, it’s not at all clear what this performance was hoped to accomplish. Best guess: These things would be launched, and then the Soviets would be told they’re out there, just orbiting around awaiting a “come home” code. Code not received… Snarks wander on in into the USSR and cause a ruckus. Sort of a last chance for Uncle Joe to get his nonsense under control. If the “come home” code was sent, presumably the Snarks would ditch in the ocean, either for recovery, or to plunge straight to the bottom.
A DUKW on display at the Heartland Museum of Military Vehicles in Lexington, Nebraska. This particular amphibious truck has certainly seen better days, but I suspect it’s probably in line for restoration at some point. I don’t recall it having been there in previous years, so it might be a recent acquisition.
In January, Senator Feinstein will introduce a bill to stop the sale, transfer, importation and manufacturing of military-style assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition feeding devices.
Almost as impressive as the development of the nuclear bomb was the near simultaneous development of cameras fast enough to record the initial events of the nuclear explosion:
[youtube KQp1ox-SdRI]
Two phenomena worthy of mention:
1) The “mottling” of the early fireball is due, in simplest terms, to differences in the density of “stuff” around the actual nuclear bomb. The casing of the bomb, batteries, control systems, cables, support structures, all played a role.
2) The “spikes” below the fireballs, something that became known as a “rope trick.” These were only visible on nuclear tests where the bomb was mounted on a tower. While the fireballs expanded outwards at extremely high velocity, the expansion speed was nowhere near the speed of light. And in this case, the light preceding the fireballs was bright enough to cause the steel guy wires stabilizing the towers to evaporate and superheat into incandescent plasma. The light alone was enough to cause solid steel to explode with more force than any high explosive.
“Mayors Against Illegal Guns” (note: for these Mayors, this would mean *all* guns except those owned by the police… and by their security details, of course) have cranked out a new propaganda ad featuring a veritable “who’s that” of second-string Hollywood celebrities:
[youtube 64G5FfG2Xpg]
Now, even though these jokers might not be raking in the biggest money Hollywood has to offer, it’s a safe bet they’re making more money than *you.* And that they can afford to live behind great big high walls and hire armed guards. One wonders if any of them are planning on getting rid of their own security.
Where we hear New York Governor Cuomo discuss what to do about “assault weapons,” and suggest that confiscation is an option. With a new AWB, existing guns and magazines would not be grandfathered in… if you owned one, the State could compel you to turn it in to them.
Well, ok, hardly a surprise. However, keep in mind that the great majority of gun murders are carried out not with long guns, but with pistols. So it seems safe to say that a grab of handguns will also be considered. You know, “for the children.”
So what would an American stripped of legally owned firearms look like? Many people try to suggest comparisons to Europe, where they don’t murder each other at the same rate we do (until they fire up the long-range bombers and the death camps). But that’s not a good comparison… American ain’t Europe. Our cultures are quite different. A far better comparison would be to… America itself. There are places in the US where such bans on legal firearms have been in place for a long while. Take, for example, the shining gun-free city on the hill that is Chicago. Where we find:
446 school-age children shot so far this year – 62 actually murdered
As of Dec. 20, 518 homicides in Chicago
With a population of about 2.7 million, that’s a murder rate of 19.2 per 100,000. Now, extend that to the whole US, with a population of 310,000,000. The new national murder total would be 59,474. Compare that with the current score of 16,799.
You can expect the murder rate in the US to go up by a factor of about three and a half. An extra 42,675 murdered folk thanks to a drive to have *fewer* murdered folk.
This is not entirely a silly little math exercise. If a nationwide gun-grab occurs, who will be disarmed? The law abiding, obviously. The criminals will not of course turn their guns in. Indeed, this would only embolden them… they still have their guns, while the citizenry victims do not. Now, the gun-grabbers might argue that over time, the guns would be removed from the criminals hands; and this is true; every time a gun breaks or is captured, it’s out of service, probably forever. But consider:
1) The border patrol cannot stop *bales* of weed from sneaking across the border. And weed, unlike guns & ammo, has a distinctive chemical trace that dogs & such can pick up on.
2) People can make guns in home shops now.
3) People will soon be able to simply *print* guns at home.
OK, the next claim will be that ammo will be just as strictly controlled, and will quickly run out. Well, sure… but see #1 above. And then there’s…
4) As technology advances the gun of tomorrow might not need ammo as it has been known. Gauss guns today are a bit of a joke; but they are improving. Hand-held lasers today are a bit of a joke; but they’re improving. And it’s certainly conceivable that the rapid prototypers of the year 2020 would be able to stamp out every single component needed for such weapons.
And of course, even without ranged weapons, criminals would have the upper hand over much of society. Have you seen them? Most of them are hardly reed-thin stick figures, barely capable of taking on Justin Bieber. No, a good fraction of them can break you in half. And when they do get caught and thrown in the pokey, what do we do with them? Give them exercise equipment, assuring that when they get out they’ll be even *worse.*
So, cast your eyes to Chicago if you want to see the future.